[kylania]

Originally Posted by pythos

I am not sure why he was put in the brig, but I will say, this white interior is nice accepting one thing....it is not white.

It is a very light gray. Which is fine. I really don't think U boats had white interiors. Museum boats will for preservation, but operational boats I don't think would, it would add too much time to the construction of boats meant for a relatively short life span.

From a link in the main forum talking about repainting U-505 to it's original colors. Some interesting stuff!

Gill says that the background "walls" inside U-505 originally were ivory, or a yellow cream off-white. Following the 1944 capture, the Navy painted the walls white. "The U.S. Navy preferred white as it reflected the most amount of light with low light levels—important in a sub," says Gill, who suspects that the Navy also selected white for aesthetic reasons because it featured U-505 in a 1945 campaign promoting war bond sales.

"Many pieces of equipment had been painted white when originally they were a medium gray," he says, adding that the diesel engines typically were painted a dark gray or black to hide dirt and grease. The electric motor control panels also were restored from the U.S. Navy's dark gray to the original stone gray.

"For some so far unexplained reason the Germans painted the interior walls of the boat ivory instead of white," says Gill. "Further, the diesel and electric motor rooms were painted light ivory as opposed to the rest of the boat that had ivory. The light ivory was also in fireproof paint in case of fire."

In addition to the two original shades of ivory that have been applied to the walls, the machinery, levers, and other components inside the sub now display their original 13 shades of gray, white, red, green, black, or silver.

"We were even able to restore the phosphorescent coat used on hatches and overhead pipes that provided light when electrical lights were out," adds Gill.